The Big Sandy news. [volume] (Louisa, Ky.) 1885-1929, 1887-08-25

mamma is.n
Except when Mr.. Poludexter comes
And then wish she yeas--fnrther.n
"No; it's contenting tolook at her. Sheii
an object of pleasure to the eye. VIVA
eyes hers are, too--those soft blue-gra,
eyes, like great jewels, half yelled in thei
black lashes And what tea-rose skin /
isl And her figure, and the way she walks
she is like some one you read of; she's my
ideal of woman.h
YOU'RE her darling She had you ii
| possession an hour before she had me
that's the reason. Still, it is true that I
We only had mammals shape, and her com
| plexion and her eyes-but then she's MOI
done with her eyes yet said Iris, with 1
satirical emphasis.
"Well, there are not many girls who have
such mother any way
81 should hope not,n said Iris. sits
mighty uncomfortable having q person
who's not too old to be your companion, and
who yet holds such authority over you as tC
tell you when to go to bed
''Why, Iris, shouldn't think you were
fond of mamma at all"
"Fond of herl I'm rs fond as most girls
are But mamma is $3.50 exasperatingly
young, it really isn't respectable And
Just then the door opened, and mamma
came In
But may as well tell you here that
couldn't help agreeing with Iris, il it was
undutiful; mamma was so exasperating,
And as for that's icing undutiful, you
couldn't feel the sense of duty to any one
so entirely your companion, except now and
then when she put ON her imperial gar
ments. To be sure, she was only seventeen
years older than the youngest OF us, silly as
that was. But it's the truth. and was
the youngest and just seventeen myself
But it did use to seem TO US that, being our
mother, like ell other girls mothers, she
was already old as any mother, too old TO
think OF without disagreeable sensations,
and We wondered what she had to look for
ward to, and sometimes we pitied her lit
tie, feeling as II really she had nothing but
the end of all things before her. and that
all the happiness she could hope for lay in
our affairs We regretted that her hair
wasn't gray, Just as a matter OF propriety.
1t seemed an assumption of youth, an affec-
tation, that she should still have her own
teeth, and Just as as If made of nice
pearl, too. And her complexion was absurd !;
every body must suppose she painted,
with that rich color; aud why in the
world she still wanted pretty things 10
wear passed our understanding-at least
you know, Iris and mine; Prim never quite
sided with us, although sometimes she had
reason to be little disturbed about it all
herself. When Uncle Melvyn sent home
to mamma that white Grape shawl, lovely
as cloud, l felt sure that il he had only
known how we had grown up he never
would have sent it to mamma, almost an
elderly person with one foot in the grave.
Somehow Iris and l didn't like to say a
great deal about it, but it was really pain
full to us that mamma had such gay and
youthful manners; that she laughed like q
chime Of bells, quite as if she had never
grown old; that she absorbed so much OF
the conversation when callers came. We
did wish she could conduct herself in
way more becoming her years, and we re-
solved that when we were nearly thirty
five, as she was, we would try and remem-
Der the dignity that ought to come at that
period Of life, especially after having lost
a husband and being the mother OF three
full-grown daughters. And then, too II
really was notifying when new acquaint-
ances looked their surprise at mamma,
with her three great girls, to have TO let
them form their own coniectures about
her people as being low-bred and ig-
norant, seeing that they had mar
ried her off at fourteen, and she had
been widow since she was seven
teen. Somehow it seemed as if they must
have been backwoods savagcs to have
allowed such thing, instead of being edu-
Gated and well, as they were. Really
mamma was ashamed of it herself: perhaps
all the more 50 that her husband had turned
out a tyrant, whose death in three years
after her marriage was relief. You can
Judge what tyrant by his insisting on
calling the twins Primavera and Iris. But
was born just as he died, and mamma i'm.
mediately made use of her liberty to name
me for her mother, plain Sue. He ought to
nave been ashamed TO take advantage OF
such a child anyway, il he was my father.
and that's what said to mamma. But she
became all at once very lofty, and told me
never to speak in that manner again And
do you know, quite admired her then, and
wished she was as imperious aud proud and
dignitied as that always. And yet knew
she could hardly remember papa, aud
would have been terrified and unhappy
enough to sink into her grave if he had
come back from his, after all his cruel
treatment of her that she had half forgot
ten now. Somehow l am not sure that his
children did not inherit and carry out his
ideas thatway. But SHOULD like 10 know
how you would feel If person coming TO
see you should suddenly leave you to wear
the willow, so taken up By your mothers
bloom and sparkle and bright pleasantly,
her smiles and graciousness and all that,
as to forget you were in existence, and
come again aud ask for hsri You wouldn't
like il bit. And neither did Iris and /.
II mamma had had gray hair and worn
a cap over it, and smooth muslin hand
kerchief on her shoulders, and had dressed
in modified mourning on the street, and
walked slowly, and used glasses, and read
serious books with them good deal, and
left to us the front drawing-room when our
friends came, while she darned things in
the back room and wore gloves with the
fnger.tips cut of, and had gone to bed
early with rubber bag of hot water and
maid carrying her shawls and books, and
we opening the door and appearing per-
fectly lovely and solicitous-why then she
would have been about the sort OF mother
we should have liked to have.
But there she was, five feet five. not bit
OF STOPPING TO her round supple figure,
skinned, and smiling with dimple. and
walking with spring as II the earth were
something elastic; and the more our friends
used to admire her and like to be with her,
the more sure we were that it was non
sense and make-believe and bore TO them,
and it annoyed us beyond measure anyway.
And this annoyance was particularly
poignant when Mr.. Poindexter began to
frequent our house. For every body knew
that Prim and Iris were exceedingly
pretty girls, and that I-well, was plain
Sue, to be sure-but | was rather bright,
you know; and he came to see us;
and the moment he laid eyes on mamma,
sitting by the fire with book in her
hand, and rising to meet him like queen,
extending that long, sculpturesque, bare
hand OF hers-mamma never wore rings;
her hand was too iine for that--then he,
MAYER had five words moro for any NJ nc